Chorus Leader
[355]
Their offspring are a wonderful thing to women; all of them have some love for their children.
Polyneices
Mother, I have come among enemies wisely or foolishly; but all men must love their native land; whoever says otherwise
[360]
is pleased to say so, but his thoughts are turned elsewhere. I was so fearful and in such terror, lest my brother should kill me by treachery, that I came through the city sword in hand, looking all round. I had one advantage,
[365]
the truce and your word, which brought me to to the paternal walls; and I arrived here weeping, to see after a long time my home and the altars of the gods, the training ground, scene of my childhood, and the water of Dirce, from which I was unjustly driven to live in a foreign city,
[370]
a stream of tears flowing from my eyes. Now, grief upon grief, I see you [with hair cut short and in black robes], alas for my sorrows! What a terrible thing, mother, is hatred between dear friends.
[375]
[and how hard it makes reconciliation]
What is my old father doing within the house, looking on darkness? What of my two sisters? Surely the unhappy ones lament my exile?
Jocasta
Some god with evil intent is destroying the race of Oedipus.
[380]
So it began, my childbearing was unholy, and in an evil hour I married your father and you were born. But why repeat these horrors? What the gods send we have to bear. I am afraid to ask you what I would, for fear of stinging your heart; yet I long to.
Polyneices
[385]
No, question me, leave out nothing; for your will, mother, is my pleasure too.
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Euripides. The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. in two volumes. 2. The Phoenissae, translated by E. P. Coleridge. New York. Random House. 1938.
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